{"id":687,"date":"2020-04-02T10:15:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T04:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.potentialloops.org\/?p=687"},"modified":"2020-04-02T10:15:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T04:45:58","slug":"missing-link-in-coronavirus-jump-from-bats-to-humans-could-be-pangolins-not-snakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potentialloops.org\/?p=687","title":{"rendered":"Missing link in coronavirus jump from bats to humans could be pangolins, not snakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Source: who.int<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Date: March 26, 2020 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source 1: American Chemical Society <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source 2: www.sciencedaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary: As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus’ genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares ‘uncanny similarities’ with an HIV-1 protein. Now, a study refutes both ideas and suggests that scaly, anteater-like animals called pangolins are the missing link for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between bats and humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus’ genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares “uncanny similarities” with an HIV-1 protein. Now, a study in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research<\/em> refutes both ideas and suggests that scaly, anteater-like animals called pangolins are the missing link for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between bats and humans. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Understanding where SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that caused the COVID-19 \npandemic — came from and how it spreads is important for its control \nand treatment. Most experts agree that bats are a natural reservoir of \nSARS-CoV-2, but an intermediate host was needed for it to jump from bats\n to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent study that analyzed the new virus’ genome suggested snakes \nas this host, despite the fact that coronaviruses are only known to \ninfect mammals and birds. Meanwhile, an unrelated study compared the \nsequence of the spike protein — a key protein responsible for getting \nthe virus into mammalian cells — of the new coronavirus to that of \nHIV-1, noting unexpected similarities. Although the authors withdrew \nthis preprint manuscript after scientific criticism, it spawned rumors \nand conspiracy theories that the new coronavirus could have been \nengineered in a lab. Yang Zhang and colleagues wanted to conduct a more \ncareful and complete analysis of SARS-CoV-2 DNA and protein sequences to\n resolve these issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to the previous studies, the researchers used larger data \nsets and newer, more accurate bioinformatics methods and databases to \nanalyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome. They found that, in contrast to the claim\n that four regions of the spike protein were uniquely shared between \nSARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1, the four sequence segments could be found in other\n viruses, including bat coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After uncovering an error in the analysis that suggested snakes as an\n intermediate host, the team searched DNA and protein sequences isolated\n from pangolin tissues for ones similar to SARS-CoV-2. The researchers \nidentified protein sequences in sick animals’ lungs that were 91% \nidentical to the human virus’ proteins. Moreover, the receptor binding \ndomain of the spike protein from the pangolin coronavirus had only five \namino acid differences from SARS-CoV-2, compared with 19 differences \nbetween the human and bat viral proteins. This evidence points to the \npangolin as the most likely intermediate host for the new coronavirus, \nbut additional intermediate hosts could be possible, the researchers \nsay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation,\n the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National \nInstitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Extreme Science and\n Engineering Discovery Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: March 26, 2020 Source 1: American Chemical Society Source 2: www.sciencedaily.com Summary: As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus’ genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares ‘uncanny similarities’ with an HIV-1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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